just like Dad

Our kids are SO lucky to have such a great Dad! He talks with them, tickles and wrestles with them, laughs with them, and teaches them so much! I thought it'd be great to document some of how I think each of the kids are like their wonderful Dad.

*Alivia- she is very musically inclined; she loves to perform and be in front of a crowd; she gets anxious sometimes; school comes pretty easy for her. All of these things are "just like Dad".

*Jackson- is a hot sleeper, just like his Dad. He'd be fine with just a sheet on most nights of the year. He loves nature, the outdoors and learning about animals. He likes to snuggle with Mom or Dad.  All of these things are "just like Dad".

*Levi- I am frequently told that Levi looks "just like his Dad" or "he's a mini Josh". He's frequently told he has a large head, just like his dad; we say that's to hold all of his big smart brains. Levi is very musically inclined too- he's always humming or singing and really enjoys practicing, learning and playing the piano. All of these things are "just like Dad".

*All the kids- they all love listening to music with their Dad. They seem to love his taste of music more- so than Mom's taste in music, specifically country. Why is that? Anyway, we're trying to educate them on the classics and the "oldies but goodies" and I'm happy they're getting that education. I love turning on the radio and Levi will say "Hey, that's Hall & Oates!" Love it.

Because we live where my husband grew up, I very frequently have people tell me that "this child" or "that child" of mine looks JUST LIKE HIS/HER Dad! I had one lady tell me that Alivia is the female version of a little Josh, and very regularly I have people tell me Levi is a "Little Josh" and some people say it about Jackson too. How funny!

I think Daddy and I have similar looks and features and some people think we could be related through blood. In actuality I think it all depends who you've been around, because when we go back to MY home people tell me my kids look JUST like ME or this side of MY family or THAT side of my family. Kinda funny.

All in all, I love how I can see different traits and characteristics that they get from their Dad. He's not perfect but he's a good good man, a great father and husband and a man worth emulating and listening too. I chose well. Thank you for being such an amazing kind, loving, and fun Dad. We love you!

Jackson's 9th bday

March 18, 2017

Our boy turned 9! Where has the time gone? I posted these pictures from snippets of Jackson's life. I love this. So many great moments and memories. We sure love this boy!!

It's time to blow out the candles and make a wish. He asked for chocolate cake with PB frosting- a boy after my own heart. Happy to oblige.

Because Jackson's birthday is so close to St Patrick's birthday I took the lazy way out and had a St Patricks Day themed birthday party this year. Our rainbow kebobs and our pot of gold (mac and cheese). All items are Jackson-approved.

WE all wore some green for the party. After inner, we played a few games at the party which were pretty funny to watch. Games were: Rainbow Relay (sort the M&Ms by color), Pots of Gold (separate the gold goodies from the other goodies while blindfolded),  and "feeling lucky" (pick the marshmallows out of the Lucky Charms with a spoon; the team with the most marshmallows wins).

I also found Leprechaun names for everyone. Jacksons' was Sly McMuffin. 😂

I found this Irish Blessing and I love it. It goes like this: May your troubles be less and your blessings be more, and nothing but happiness come through your door.

Here's a little bit about Jackson @ age 9-
Favorite color- blue
Favorite food- sausage and eggs, or steak
Favorite treat- chocolate candy or gummy candy. He can't decide
Favorite free time activity- go hiking
Favorite subject @ school- Math
Favorite primary song- Nephi's Courage
Favorite scripture story- Nephi getting the plates from Laban.
When I grow up I want to be ... a business man like Dad.

We love you SO very much Jackson. You are such an amazing boy. You're kind, sympathetic, compassionate, smart and enthusiastic. You are going to go far Bud. We'll be right here along the way. Let's do this!

Jackson's wolf award

We've been working hard to finish up Jackson's Wolf award before he turned 9 and we just made it.

Here we are receiving his patch and the mom's pin (cool idea).

This boy LOVES cub scouts. I'm grateful for great leaders who help him along and for a Daddy who knows what he's doing to help us get done what needs to be done.

Baking with Mom

March 2017

I try to bake with the kids on Saturday or Sunday. I love having them there helping and learning and they enjoy licking the beaters when we're done. :)

One Sunday we made a big batch of cookies to deliver to friends. They can hardly stand it until I'm done dishing them out so they can lick the beaters and things.

Alivia's scraping out the last of the goodness from the mixing bowl. Mmmm!

This is another day about a week later when we made cookies again. We had a snow day so OF COURSE we had to do some baking. It's kind of a necessary duo- snow day  = baking yummy treats after you play in the snow.

Thanks for the help kids. I remember helping my Mom with baking and I too loved licking the beaters; of course this only applies to cookie dough, brownie, bread or cake batter is not worth it; please remember that. :)

Wacky Wednesday for Dr Suess

{3.1.17}

We've been celebrating Dr Seuss this week and Wednesday was WACKY WEDNESDAY in honor of his book. Daddy did the boys hair "all wacky" and they loved it! Levi said, "I look like a maniac!" Chuckle chuckle.

Here they are with their silliest faces.

And again.

Surprisingly their hair stayed pretty much like this the whole day. They both had a few people say "you should do your hair like this all the time. It looks cool." If they only knew all the work and GOO that went in to getting it look like this. :)

return of the micro machines

We were at Grandma's house one day and she'd been cleaning through her basement of treasures. She came across her boys' (our Daddy's) old MicroMachines. I remember those from way back when! I thought they were cool too!

Well the kids were new to them and were excited to get them all out, examine all their little details and race them.

They are SO TINY!

I love these "throwback" moments when we can share part of our childhood with the kids and they can experience it for themselves. Nice!

Why I scrapbook

I am a record keeper. My favorite, most creative way to do this is through scrapbooking; you can combine your pictures and pretty pages along with the story and it makes it more interesting than just putting the pictures in an album with no explanation. 

I've been scrapbooking for about 20 years (sheesh that makes me sound old) and I really enjoy it. It keeps evolving; this industry has changed so much in that time frame and I'm happy to say I've learned from all the changes along the way.

I have an excellent memory when it comes to names and numbers, but I'm not so good at telling you what I are for lunch 2 days ago. This is why I scrapbook- not only so I can remember these precious memories but so my children can know and remember them too. 

Getting out our scrapbooks is one of our favorite things to do, especially on Sundays. The boys love just looking at the pictures and remembering those moments and Alivia loves readings what I wrote about her. 

She was looking through her preschool album saying "oh I remember that!"

As they looked at their albums it made my heart smile. :) This is why I scrapbook- to see them enjoy them and remember those moments. I love that you can see Alivia's smile from under her cheekbones. :) She kept her album out for a few days and looked at it day after day. She really enjoys them. I know the boys will too once they learn how to read my handwriting (which is always a work in progress).

Christmas cookies with Grandma

{12.14.13} Grandma invited all her grand kids over to make Christmas cookies together again this year!

Here is Alivia, Grandma and Jackson rolling out and cutting the sand tart cookies.

An overhead shot of Jackson and Grandma hard at work.

Here are the 5 big cousins rolling the peppermint patty balls in sugar. Looks like they're having fun!

Levi did a good job rolling his cookie out too! And look at this sweet face he gave me when I said "cheese!" ;)

Our tally at the end of our hard work was about 12 dozen various cookies and 7-8 dozen peppermint patties, which we split 4 ways, thankfully. ;)

We made:
Grandma's Sand Tarts
Peppermint Pinwheels
Candy Cane Kiss Cookies
Chocolate Chipper (M&M) Champs, and
Easy Christmas Peppermint Patties

We had such a fun morning together (grownups and kids alike) and we played and visited well into the afternoon. It was just so nice being together, then the snow started and broke our party up. Good thing Christmas is coming soon so we can get together again!

monkey joes

Monday morning we joined a BUNCH of our friends at Monkey Joe's.  I'd never heard of it before but WHAT A FUN PLACE! We were even able to get a playgroup rate so it was even better! (Adults are free)

As you can see below, its a BIG place with a bunch of inflatables perfect for sliding, climbing, and bouncing. The kids had a blast! The only stipulation is that they need to be in socks, otherwise they make you BUY socks there.

 They even had a couple inflatables especially for kids 4 and younger.

This one below is one of them. Jackson is on a sea monster or sea dinosaur. You can see a snail in the background too, etc.

This shot is a double slide (one set of steps and slide on each side of the palm tree). You climb up one side and slide down the other.

Like I said, there are a couple inflatables specifically for littler ones, but they could go on any of the others, its just that they're a little more involved and more apt to be bounced around by the bigger ones.

The slide below on the right, Jackson climbed up a couple times but for some reason never slid down, he ended up walking back down the steps backwards. But the shot below this one is of the slide on the left. Later he tried that one and did that over and over again. Goofy boy.

See the cute Monkey Joe in this shot? It was a cool place. Lots of bright colors and such, very clean. They use a special Swisher cleaner on all the inflatables and kill 99.9% of germs (hopefully).

Alivia was coming down the slide as I stood there ready with my camera. I asked her to pause for a picture and this is the look she gave me.  :P This one's a ham!

Jax and his sweet little cousin A were climbing up and over these walls on their way to the slide, but as he neared the slide, he changed his mind and back over the walls he went to get out.

Lil' Levi was an angel for me, as usual.  He's such a good boy. He was smilin' at ALL the ladies, despite being SO tired. I thought this was a funny shot of him laying on my lap with his little hand under his chin and fingers in his mouth. (He's working on getting his TOP teeth now! Slow down boy!) Of course, he fell asleep once we got in the car.

This one shows Alivia climbing. Notice the guard in the black and white keeping the kids safe. There was at least one at each station, aside from the 4 and under ones (the parents' of the kiddos playing were watching over those). 

I'm so glad we went. It was about a half hour drive through pretty countryside (I went the back way because that's what GOOGLE Maps had me do. Yet, when I touched it to chart our way home it told me to take the freeway.  Why is that?)

It was a fun time. The kids were great.  They were exhausted, hungry and thirsty by the time we left but I'd prepared for that.  We will definitely come back!

I had to include this. The morning we were getting ready to go. Alivia asked how long it was going to take? I told her a half hour (or so). Then she went over to the table, got out her paper and crayons and wrote up this map. (I think that's what it is.) See- it says half hour, in the middle is a compass, and below is the place we're headed. I think it's her version of a GPS. Pretty cute. Of course it inspired Jackson to make one too. Mommy helped and he colored it in. And, as we drove up, they were both in the back, holding their maps as to help me find my way. :) Thanks guys.

way back in May...

Somehow I forgot to finish this post and post it.  Better late than never!

These were just some little moments around the house.

The kids were playing with the water table when a WATER FIGHT broke out! They had a GREAT time dumping water on each other and seeing how far they could throw it.

They got soaked! And LOVED it!

We topped it off with some Lemonade popsicles. Mmmmm...

Often I put Levi in my front pack while I vacuum (it's not an easy feat, but it counts for a workout while I vacuum). He's generally pretty happy and content to be in here, but after a while I noticed he seemed extra heavy. And this is why- bless his heart. He'd fallen asleep like this! However uncomfortable it looks I guess it is possible. Don't worry. I carefully took him out and laid him down in his crib to sleep.

Levi is VERY ticklish, like Mommy, and he loves it when Daddy tickles him. This is one such instance. I wish the pictures had the audible giggles to go with them. I love watching, seeing, and hearing him laugh!

its a jungle out there!

Earlier this month we went over to visit our cousins in Phily! We thought, "Sure. 2 moms, 6 kids, let's go to the zoo!" What were we thinking? But honestly, I don't think it could have gone much better. It was definitely doable and I'm sure we had some divine assistance. THANK YOU!

We were only able to see about 1/3 or less of the zoo but we had a great time. We saw zebra, hippo, rhino, the big cats, penguins, the reptile house, tortoise and horses.

Me and my caravan

The 4 big kiddos

Some big tortoises munching on some salad

Our sweet boy dozing in his seat as we strolled around. Honestly, he did great! He napped a bit, ate his lunch, bounced along in his front pack, and snuggled back in his seat for this nap. It was an exhausting day for all of us. Oh and the temp was about 87* or so. It was warm but there was a breeze, hallejuah!

The boys watching these cute penguins swim around and then slide down their slide.

Jackson was fascinated by this turtle. He could have watched him all day. I think its sweet how he has his hands on the glass and followed him around. (Our little secret: If we ever WERE to have a pet, a turtle is one of the few I think I could do. That or a fish. Don't tell the kiddos! I don't think Mom's ready for a pet right now. I'm working with the circus I have!) Hahaha I wouldn't have it any other way though :)

Miss Alivia was our navigator for the day. She got a map as we walked in (all the kids did actually) and she kept a hold of it the whole time. She wanted to know right where we were, what was up ahead and how to go to see what we wanted to see next. She did a really good job and I was really proud of her.

I've always had a thing with maps too. I remember on family trips always wanting to hold or see the map and help with directions, if needed. I think it's cool to see Alivia has that too! Which is pretty cool for a girl, considering boys seem to naturally have a better sense of direction.

These next few shots are at "The Treehouse" which is for zoo members only. Luckily, my sister-in-law IS a member. What a cool place. The kids could have played here all day.

Jackson's favorite part was these fish eggs he crawled all over! He LOVED them!

The girls hopped a ride from a friendly caterpillar

This HUGE Monarch butterfly that hung WAY up high was gorgeous! I can't quite capture its beauty but you get the point.

This was some giant honeycomb with giant bees. On the lower few rows the honeycomb is hollowed out so the kids could crawl through. This was a very cool place, like I said.

Mommy & Levi enjoying some time in the front pack as the other kiddos ran around at The Treehouse.

A & S at the base of this HUGE tree. Amongst the "roots" were all sorts of trails and pathways and there's even a staircase in the tree trunk. Or so I hear.  I stood guard in the front half of The Treehouse. This place was big and with 5 kiddos walking or RUNNING around there was a lot of keep track of.

They had these giant eggshells the kids enjoyed playing in.

They took turn laying down while sucking their thumbs and saying "Mama".

After about an hour of playing at The Treehouse, I coaxed the kids out with the lure of ice cream treats for all! They were hot and tired from all their good running around so we set off to find a cool treat. But on our way we saw this HUGE rhino. It was funny to watch him. He walked up to his shaded area, did a 180 and then backed up into it (because it wasn't wide enough for him to turn around in once he was in). As I watched, I couldn't help but here the "beep beep beep" of the big trucks as they back up.

We did FINALLY find ice cream treats for everyone before we headed back to the car, completely, hot, exhausted, and sticky. After a yummy dinner and some play time, we threw the kids into the tub, dressed them in their jammies and jumped back in the car for the 1 1/2 hour drive home. 2 of the 3 kiddos slept at least half the way. The 3rd kiddo fell asleep as soon as she hit her pillow at home.

Ahhh, home sweet home